Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cade Thompson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Cade, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I learned most of what I do through hands on experience or what was essentially a trial by fire. Going throughout the world of a working creative, the thing that I have found to be the most important piece of advice is learning to enjoy the process. Having career goals and striving to make a living is great and still very helpful, but if you have found an excitement for what you can create and a joy for bringing it to life all of the practical aspects of the profession are going to comes so much easier to you. It is something that I struggled with and am still battling to this day. However, I’ve found that people are going to be just as attracted to your work as you are excited about creating and sharing it. A lot of what stands in the way for me is having a certain impossible standard that I hold my work to that makes it hard to continue creating, but the times I was able to let go and simply enjoy the process are the times where I have been the most proud of the product I have created.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I had one thing that determined what I was going to study when I left high school. It didn’t matter quite what my major was as long as it was something that was a creative field making some kind of art or entertainment. I had spent my earlier years being the kid that would doodle all day in class but for a combination of reasons I was not confident enough in those skills to commit to them come college time. I then went and received my BFA in Film production in the next coming years where I ironically enough spent my down time honing my art skills that I had discarded years before. Coming into the professional world I have spent my time as a freelance video editor and artist. Two widely different professions but both I have found love for. My editing work is spent mostly carving my etch into a bigger product such as an episode of Tv, a music video, Short Films etc. Helping people polish off their ideas for videos and bringing them to life through the magic of post production. Solving problems such as creating an assembly for the client to see their video brought onto screen for the first time or some thing much more tedious like removing gear or wires from shots to add to the magic of whatever is on screen. That Tedious kind of work translates over to my life as an artist as well. This is where I spend my time showing storytelling and characters and most of my creativity. I’ve worked as a comic artist, a story board artist, doing plenty of album covers etc. I’m most proud of this specifically because of this being fully self-taught and practiced by me. My drawings are my thoughts and ideas translated into the real world. As well as a reflection of my interests and understanding of storytelling. I keep a very Graphic novel art style and spend most of my projects pulling out detail from each of my drawings. For my paid work I’ve been able to bring others ideas to life and help them tell stories that they couldn’t create themselves. It’s a very fulfilling practice and the one I’m most proud of.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Exploring my faults as a creative and finding new ways forward is so rewarding for me that I see it as a joy to be apart of anything I see promise in. Every day there are new tools, new techniques, new people, and new styles that enter the creative world. It is a limitless world of interesting and new perspectives that you can learn from gather new skills and apply to your work. That in itself keeps the learning process enjoyable and fresh despite being known to have a history of not being self confident in my own work. However, when you show your work to someone who hasn’t a clue how you created it or the stress of seeing all the minor faults, and you see the fascination they have towards your work, that is the most rewarding thing to me.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal in my profession is to lend my hand or to spearhead telling as many stories or fleshing out as many ideas as possible. Since I was a kid I’ve been inspired by stories and the immersion and emotion that they have allowed me to explore. I want to be the missing tool that other creatives are looking for when not knowing how to continue forward with their ideas. In the same frame of reference I want my work to be inspiring to the aspiring creative to make them want to start their own journey and begin to bring their own ideas to life. I don’t think I’m there yet but that idea makes me want to get up and try without knowing if I’m headed towards success or failure.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: thompson_cade
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cade-thompson-28708b22b/
